Arpaio Turns to Twitter and Propaganda Film to Bash CBS 5; Only Problem is, MCSO Might be Right

It turns out New Times isn't the only media outlet on Joe Arpaio's radar.

Arpaio turned to his Twitter page and his propaganda ministers last week to bash CBS 5 for its coverage of the Sheriff's Office, and the MCSO may have a point on this one.

After its unflattering coverage of the sheriff last week, Arpaio responded to CBS 5 with the following tweet: "ch 5 news dir & reporter run same story over & over about MCSO..getting a little silly...hoping for an emmy at my expense?? Good Luck Ch 5."

The Sheriff's Office then took the time to make a video to "set the record straight" about one of CBS 5's stories.

On January 26, CBS 5 ran a story about an elderly Phoenix man, who left his home to go live with his daughters. He apparently forgot to bring his cats with him because, when animal rescue workers got to the man's house, it was filled with feces and dead animals.

At the end of the story, reporter Jose Miguel claims that neighbors had called the Sheriff's Office to complain about smells coming from the house but never got a response.

Miguel then claims he called the sheriff for a comment on the story and also got no response, which the sheriff's public relations office disputes.

Following the story, Arpaio's PR folks released a video claiming that nobody from CBS 5 had called anyone in the Sheriff's Office for a comment on that particular story.

CBS 5 News tried twice to get a response from MCSO, beginning at 1:47pm that day. Detectives said they never got our messages. However, they insist that we continue to use the designated phone lines for media and not contact them directly.

This is a public agency serving﻿ the public.

We will continue to direct appropriate scrutiny toward MCSO and all agencies that serve our viewers.

As much as we love anyone scrutinizing the MCSO, Donaldson tells New Times she has no way of knowing whether the e-mails were ever actually sent because she never saw them.

"Jose wasn't working the day they asked for the e-mails, and I wasn't about to call him in on his day off to do so," Donaldson says.

Considering the Seriff's Office directly challenges the station to produce the e-mails in the video, she may want to get on that.

Donaldson says Miguel is back on the job tomorrow. We'll keep you posted as to whether he can produce the e-mails.